Share this:

The L.A. Sparks on Monday announced they’d signed veteran forward Ashley Walker, who was cut on the final day of training camp. The 32-year-old Walker came off the bench and averaged 14 points in two preseason contests. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)

The veteran forward who shone in a pair of preseason games but was waived on the final day of training camp has been added to the team with an injury hardship exception, the Sparks announced Monday.

With fewer than 10 players available — Candace Parker and Alana Beard are hurt and didn’t make the trip east to start the Sparks’ four-game trip and Maria Vadeeva is overseas fulfilling her Russian national team commitment — the Sparks were granted the exception.

In a pair of preseason games, the 32-year-old Walker came off the bench and averaged 14 points while shooting 60 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range. She also averaged four rebounds in those two contests.

The versatile forward graduated from Cal in 2009 as the only player in Bears history with at least 1,000 points, 800 rebounds, 200 assists and 100 blocked shots has been a bright spot so far in Sparks training camp.

Walker was drafted 12th overall in 2009 by the Seattle Storm. She played for the Tulsa Shock in 2010 and the Connecticut Sun in 2013 and also has played professionally in Israel, Ukraine, Italy and Romania.

The Sparks next game is 8 a.m. Tuesday on the road against the New York Liberty.

Mirjam Swanson covers the Clippers, the NBA and the LA Sparks for the Southern California News Group. Previously, she wrote about LeBron James and the rest of the Dream Team at the 2004 Olympics (where, yes, they took bronze), Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Open on one leg, and had a tour reporting on city government, education and the occasional bear in a backyard.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.